


Reviewer Two

by TheSpasticFantastic



Series: A Tale of Two Cities [6]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Modern AU, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:35:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28428660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSpasticFantastic/pseuds/TheSpasticFantastic
Summary: Agnarr finally learns what makes Elsa's boyfriend lose his cool.
Relationships: Elsa/Alarik
Series: A Tale of Two Cities [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1815652
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	Reviewer Two

**Author's Note:**

> Congrats to @couragedontdesertme for finishing up her amazing story, City of Ice! And also, thank you, for not only providing us with such a great fic, but for not breaking my kneecaps for being, like, four or five stories behind. Thank you @fericita-s for beta reading and @patricia-von-arundel for coming up with the Shardsverse!

“Thank you for making the time to have lunch with me.”

“Dad.” Elsa gave him a loving, but exasperated look. “Don’t.”

“What? It’s been too long since we’ve had lunch together.” Agnarr grinned as he placed the Wawa hoagies onto plates. He glanced around her small apartment, looking for signs of his daughter’s . . .well, ‘partner’ was the word she kept using. And he had to admit it did feel less silly than calling a thirty-year-old man her ‘boyfriend’. Although, frankly, he’d prefer it if it if they could all just call him ‘That Ex’.

“So,” he said in what he hoped was a light tone. “Any word on Alarik’s search for an Assistant Professorship position?”

“Not really.” She placed two cups of tea on the table and sat down. He joined her with the food. “But watching him go through the application process really makes be glad I left academia. It’s insane how many personal statements he’s had to write. And I swear some of these places don’t even know his name, only his government grant numbers.”

“That’s one of the biggest issues with an R1.” He grudgingly agreed. “If you’re up for tenure, you need to bring in the big bucks. Even in my department, the junior faculty are constantly grant grubbing. And I have to admit, we expect far more publications from them. We used to say, ‘Publish or Perish’ back in my day, but it really seems to have gone off the rails.”

“Alarik has said as much. He has a paper under review right now at a high-impact journal that he’s been worried about. He’s hoping it will strengthen his application to UCSD.”

“UCSD?” Agnarr nearly choked. “That’s all the way across the country.”

“I know, dad,” Elsa sighed and rubbed her forehead. 

“It’s a seven-hour flight!”

“Yes, dad, I know.”

“But- “He cast about with his hands before catching Elsa’s expression. It was the same one her mother wore when he was about to blunder into a very one-sided, heated lecture. He frowned, shrugged, and tore a piece of bread off the hoagie. “Well. UCSD is a fine school. What about Cornell? Or Columbia? Wasn’t he looking there?”

Elsa relaxed in her seat. “Cornell is out. I don’t think I could handle the winters there.” Agnarr winced at her casual tone, but she wasn’t looking at him. “Columbia is our top choice if he gets an offer. That’s another reason to hope he squeaks in another application before his interview next month.”

“Right.”

“It’d be a little funny,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and smiling at him. “Don’t you think? If he wound up where you and mom met?”

He grunted noncommittally and chewed his food. Elsa sighed again and fixed him with a look. He swallowed. “What?”

“Dad, I do wish you’d try a little.”

“Try a little what?”

“Try to get to know Alarik, dad. Try to like him.”

“I like him!” Agnarr protested. “I’ve even given him advice on his applications when he’s asked. He’s a smart and motivated researcher, even if I don’t understand what the heck he’s working on half the time.”

“That’s not what I mean.” She raised an eyebrow. “You were never this difficult about Kristoff. And Anna was ten years younger –“

“Elsa,” he raised a hand. “First, your sister would swear that I was far more difficult about Kristoff than Alarik. And it’s not that I . . .dislike Alarik. I don’t. He’s a very nice young man.” Agnarr sighed. “I just wonder if he’s a very nice young man for _you_.”

“Oh my God!” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“Elsa, you’re just so – you’re so passionate about everything you do.” She rolled her eyes again but gave a small smile. “No, really, you are. You bring such a dedicated intensity to everything that you do. From your hobbies, to your business, to your studies – you’ve always committed to everything one hundred percent. You’re like me. We just don’t do half-measures.” 

He rubbed the back of his neck. “And Alarik – nice as he is – I just don’t see him matching your passion and drive. Even with his job applications, Alarik is ambitious but I don’t know that he has that fire in his belly to really thrive at some of these competitive universities- “

“Elsa!” The apartment door flew open and banged against the wall, hinges squealing. Agnarr started as Alarik burst into the room. He slammed his leather satchel onto the sofa and threw his hands into the air. “Goddamn ‘Reviewer Two’ is at it again! The idiot rejected it! He rejected it based on a methodology that I explained wasn’t suited for the study in the first place!”

Agnarr winced in sympathy. He had also had many promising manuscripts and articles rejected over the years because some halfwit hadn’t carefully read a section where something was clearly spelled out. But Alarik hadn’t even seemed to notice him in the midst of his apoplectic rant.

“Oh no,” Elsa said, resting her chin in her palm and watching him with a sympathetic gaze. She looked so much like her mother that Agnarr felt a pang in his chest.

“And you know what else? Fucking Griggs is trying to muscle in on my lab space! Like he’s the one with the K12 grant and I’m not the one who spent three goddamn months working on an NIH application-“ Agnarr blinked. He didn’t think he’d ever heard Alarik raise his voice before, let alone curse a senior researcher. And even though he was close enough that Agnarr was getting worried he was going to get smacked in head by one of Alarik’s flailing arms, he wasn’t certain Alarik even knew he was there.

“This is bullshit, Elsa! Utter bullshit! I should’ve told Griggs to get fucked when he offered me the-“

“Alarik!” Elsa spoke loudly and brightly. “Dad is here!”

Agnarr managed a smile as Alarik’s arms dropped to his sides. “Oh.” He had never seen Alarik’s eyes look so glassy. “Agnarr. Always a pleasure.”

“Don’t mind me, just here to have lunch with my daughter.”

“Yes, yes, of course.” Alarik’s tone was distracted. He snapped his gaze back to Elsa. “Complete bullshit! I’m just going to rewrite the damn thing and send it to the Journal of Epigenetic Advancement.” He spun on his heel and started to stalk away before turning back and pointing a threatening finger towards the ceiling. “And if Griggs doesn’t back the hell off, I’m going to get one of those – one of those thingies from your last book! The one about 12th century medical advances!”

“A fleam?”

“Yeah! That! I’m going to get a fleam and cut Grigg’s balls off!”

There was a long silence after Alarik slammed the bedroom door shut. Agnarr could hear him continuing to angrily talk to himself amid various thumping sounds. He turned back to Elsa, who looked entirely too amused for his liking.

“I’m sorry, dad, you were just telling me how he has no passion?” 


End file.
